IMPAK MODUL PEMBELAJARAN BERASASKAN MASALAH- SAINS, TEKNOLOGI, KEJURUTERAAN DAN MATEMATIK KEPADA PELAJAR SEKOLAH MENENGAH DI LUAR BANDAR: KAJIAN PERBANDINGAN

Abstract

Students enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses in Malaysia have recently decreased, particularly among rural students. It is necessary to mobilize the effort and awareness of the importance of STEM intensively, which supposedly begins at the school level. Accordingly, STEM AUMS Warriors, UMS organized the AUMS Warriors STEM program for rural students by using problem-based learning (PBL)-STEM modules to promote STEM education. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the impact of the PBL-STEM module on rural students in terms of students’ interest in STEM, students’ learning motivation and students’ soft skills development. In the program, four PBL-STEM modules namely Seibutsu module, Da Vinci Code module, The Power of Atom module, and Inception module were used separately in four meetings attended by 79 rural high school students. Qualitative analysis is conducted using a questionnaire that includes components related to students’ interest in STEM, students’ learning motivation and the development of students' soft skills. The questionnaire was distributed to students each time the module is completed. The result shows that the average value for each statement is more than 5.2000 and most of the students give a response of 'Agree' and 'Strongly Agree' for each statement. These results show that all PBL-STEM modules have a positive impact on rural students. A comparative study between the modules showed no significant difference between the modules and the average value for all the aspects studied showed an increase from the first meeting to the last meeting. The study demonstrates, all activities in the module successfully increase students' motivation to learn STEM subjects and further boost students' interest in STEM. The implementation of the PBL method in the module through presentation and group work activities helps in enhancing the students' soft skills including communication, collaboration, self-confidence, and student self-learning skills.